Hi, I am editing a feature documentary right now and will be doing the Color for it as well, and will be doing more Color work in the near future. I have colored other projects for web and international broadcast, but I recently learned about DisplayCal and I’m trying to rethink my calibration methods. My methods have worked for me so far and no one has complained about weird color shifting or anything, but I always delivered ProRes files and not DCP’s or anything, so I don’t know if they applied some color science afterwards for the broadcast stuff. Here is what my previous setup was:

Windows 7 – Nvidia Quadro K5200 – Dell U2410 (10 bit IPS) – Spyder 4 Elite – and my calibration process in the past was just to calibrate in the Spyder software, and I tried several different presets and all gave fairly similar results, and I was pleased with the colors.

A few days ago I started doing some research into calibration for DCI-P3 for this film I’m on and uncovered a slew of things which caused more questions than answers. But on my quest I learned of DisplayCal and decided to switch to this for my calibration. I’ve tried 3 calibrations so far with different settings and they give me very different results and so I feel the need to ask what the best settings are for me and my needs.

Things I need: I need to be able to color for projects for film, broadcast, and web; I’m happy to do new calibrations in between if I have to, but I need to know what I’m doing. I would ideally like the monitor to be calibrated to the proper color science, because some projects have me color in Premiere, some in Speedgrade, some in Resolve, and I also do Photoshop work (which I know is different, but still want accurate colors), but I’d also like to know the process for bringing the LUTs into these programs if that’s the only way to achieve the correct color space.

My questions are as follows:

1. Considering a film needs to be displayed on DCI-P3 projector, but also needs to look good for web, dvd, and potential broadcast; should I try to calibrate my monitor to a DCI-P3 colorspace and work that way? Or should I work in a default Gamma 2.2 or maybe Rec 709 to get the colors where I want them, then use something like cuteDCP or easyDCP to export the DCP into a DCI-P3 colorspace? I’ve never had to create DCP’s before and I want to make sure they are as accurate as possible and I know we don’t have time to rent a theater and check the colors on a proper projector.

2. What is the best workflow for how I should calibrate my monitor and colorspaces to work (and or LUTs to use) to get the most accuracy with final output to Film (DCI-P3)? Broadcast (Rec 709)? And Web?

3. How should I approach things with regards to bringing in 3D LUTs for Resolve? But also, in general to have my monitor as close as possible, so I can also grade in Premiere if a client requests?